Who’s At Risk For High Blood Pressure?

On our previous article we discussed the danger of high blood pressure, now lets take a quick look at who is at risk of developing the condition. Though anyone can develop high blood pressure, your risk increases exponetially depending on various genetic, age and lifestyle factors.

Lifestyle

Risk factors that can increase your chance of high blood pressure:

Smoking

Drinking Alcohol

Being overweight or obese

Lack of exercise

Too little potassium

Too much salt

Too little vitamin D

Age/Gender

This one is unfortunately unavoidable, but as you age your risk of developing high blood pressure will increase. Men start out by being more at risk than women earlier on in life, though that eventually evens out. For men being over the age of 45 increases your risk of high blood pressure. For women being over the age of 55 will increase your risk factor.

Stress

Those of you living a stressful lifestyle due to work, kids, responsibilities might want to try and find ways to unwind. Get some bath salts, put some relaxing essential oils in the diffuser, or go for a nice long massage. Whatever it is that helps you relax should be done regularly, because after all neglecting your own health going to affect all those prospects in the long run.

Genetics

If a family member has high blood pressure your chances of getting it increases. Traits like blue eyes, or fair hair aren’t the only thing we inherent, factors in diseases are also unfortunately also inherited. It’s very useful to check on your family’s history of diseases, not just for blood pressure, but also other conditions such as heart disease.

Next up we’ll be looking at a little something that will help you deal with high blood pressure.